History: Planning for the Sydney Opera House began in the late 1940s when Eugene Goossens, the Director of the NSW State Conservatorium of Music, lobbied for a suitable venue for large theatrical productions.

The normal venue for such productions, the Sydney Town Hall, was not considered large enough.

By 1954, Goossens succeeded in gaining the support of NSW Premier Joseph Cahill, who called for designs for a dedicated opera house.

It was also Goossens who insisted that Bennelong Point be the site for the Opera House. Cahill had wanted it to be on or near Wynyard Railway Station in the north-west of the CBD.

The competition was launched by Cahill on 13 September 1955 and received 233 entries from 32 countries. The criteria specified a large hall seating 3000 and a small hall for 1200 people, each to be designed for different uses including full-scale operas, orchestral and choral concerts, mass meetings, lectures, ballet performances and other presentations.

The winner, announced in 1957, was Jørn Utzon, a Danish architect. The prize was £5,000. The Opera House was formally completed in 1973, having cost $102 million

The Opera House was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007. It is one of the world's most distinctive 20th century buildings, and one of the most famous performing arts centres in the world.

Source: wikipedia

Photographer: © 2004 Bjarte Sorensen **

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Perth was founded on 12 June 1829 by Captain James Stirling as the political centre of the free settler Swan River Colony. It is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia with a population of 1,650,000 (2009).

Before European settlement the area had been inhabited by the Whadjuk Noongar people for over 40,000 years, as evidenced by archaeological findings on the Upper Swan River. These Aborigines occupied the southwest corner of Western Australia, living as hunter-gatherers. The lakes on the coastal plain were particularly important to them, providing both spiritual and physical sustenance.

Rottnest, Carnac and Garden Islands were also important to the Noongar. About 5,000 years ago the sea levels were low enough that they could walk to the limestone outcrops.

The area where Perth now stands was called Boorloo by the Aboriginals living there at the time of their first contact with Europeans in 1827.

The first documented European sighting of the region was made by the Dutch Captain Willem de Vlamingh and his crew on 10 January 1697. Subsequent sightings between this date and 1829 were made by other Europeans.

Although the British Army had established a base at King George Sound (later Albany) on the south coast of western Australia in 1826 in response to rumours that the area would be annexed by France, Perth was the first full scale settlement by Europeans in the western third of the continent.

Perth became known worldwide as the "City of Lights" as city residents lit their house lights and streetlights as American astronaut John Glenn passed overhead while orbiting the earth on Friendship 7 in 1962. The city repeated its feat as Glenn passed overhead on the Space Shuttle in 1998.

Source: wikipedia

Photographer: © 2005 Nachoman-au **

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Uluru, also referred to as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia.

It lies 335 km (208 mi) south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; 450 km (280 mi) by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park.

Uluru is sacred to the Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, the Aboriginal people of the area. It has many springs, waterholes, rock caves and ancient paintings. Uluru is listed as a World Heritage Site. It is a popular destination of tourists from around the world.

Source: wikipedia

Photographer: © ? **

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Melbourne was named after the 2nd Viscount Melbourne, William Lamb in 1837, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the reigns of both King William IV and Queen Victoria and is located on the lower reaches of the Yarra River and on the northern and eastern shorelines of Port Phillip, extending into their hinterland.

It was established in 1835 (47 years after the first European settlement of Australia), by free settlers from Van Diemen’s Land, as a pastoral township around the estuary of the Yarra River.

Melbourne was declared a city by Queen Victoria in 1847, and became the capital of Victoria when the district was declared a separate colony from New South Wales in 1851.

When gold was discovered in the district during the 1850s (which sparked the Victorian gold rush) Melbourne was transformed into a wealthy metropolis, and one of the largest and richest cities in the world, by the 1880s.

Source: wikipedia

Photographer: © ? **

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Brisbane city, situated on the Brisbane River on a low-lying floodplain between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Queensland, is named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the Governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.

The local indigenous people knew the area as Mian-jin, meaning 'place shaped as a spike'.

The first European settlement in Queensland was a penal colony at Redcliffe, 28 kilometres (17 mi) north of the Brisbane central business district, in 1824. Free settlers were permitted from 1842.

Brisbane was chosen as the capital when Queensland was proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales in 1859.

The city played a central role in the Allied campaign during World War II as the South West Pacific headquarters for General Douglas MacArthur and, more recently, hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo '88 and the 2001 Goodwill Games.

Source: wikipedia

Photographer: © James R 2007 : Panorama stiched by Marku 1988 *

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Cradle Mountain, comprising dolomite, is a distinctive mountain in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania, Australia. Rising to 1,545 metres above sea level it is one of the principal tourist sites in Tasmania.

The climb up the rocky part of the mountain involves scrambling over large boulders for several hundred metres. It is a strenuous return hike of about 6.5 hours, from the Dove Lake car park

Information Source: wikipedia

Photographer: unknown

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